Sylvania's Saving Grace
by jCOOLn
Summary: Harry has landed in Sylvania after sacrificing himself to prevent Chaos from ever breaking into his world. Only the power granted to him after using the philosopher's stone in a certain ritual allowed him to survive. After seeing the beaten down humans enslaved to monsters in Sylvania he knows he cannot abandon them. He will bring to them light, reason, and freedom. Alchemy/Magic


**Title: Sylvania's Saving Grace**

 **Chapter One: A Whole New World**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Warhammer Fantasy so please don't sue me**

 **Info: I am a free writer, I am not on a schedule, so updates will be infrequent, don't like don't read**

 **Info: There may be graphic depiction of various subjects some people may be uncomfortable with, such as sex, death, and or betrayal. Don't like, don't read.**

 **Harry Info: Harry used the Philosopher's Stone to transform himself into an advanced state of being. This has pushed his abilities into the superhuman category. His mental, physical, and magical abilities have been pushed past their human limitations.**

 **XXX**

"Son of a bitch! Did anyone catch the number of that eighteen wheeler?" A distinctively human voice echoed from the darkness. Soon the popping of bones followed it. "Man that hurt. Crossing my fingers I never have to do that again."

Eventually a young man stood up. Even though there was barely any light his eyes cut through the darkness without any difficulties. "Where am I?" His head turned from side to side examining the rather gloomy looking place. "It's like waking up in a Bram Stoker novel."

It was true. All around him were bogs of stinking water inhabited by fat flies. They landed on the murky surface only to be eaten by an equally disgusting toad. All around the water were sickly trees growing up out of the earth. Not only were they thing, but he could almost say for certain that they were barely alive. What leaves did grow on them were a dark green, almost black, that seemed to drink in darkness as opposed to light.

The surrounding area seemed tainted in some way. His eyes looked through the fog feeling the sickness within the land trying, and failing, to taint him. Its gloominess was almost as tangible as the fog that rolled across the sickly swamp. Even the air seemed to carry an air of loneliness about it when it felt so inclined to even move.

It did not take Harry long to realize that wherever he was it was not Earth. Looking up into the night sky none of the stars were the same as those of his world. Their alignment meant nothing to him. Yet even the stars seemed to pale in comparison to the two moons hanging over the planet. One, a white color like from his own world, while the second smaller one of the two was a sickly green. As he stared at it he could almost see a dark grin spreading across its surface. While he had no clue what it was made of, it was apparently not natural.

"Ok… creepy." He hoped that this was not all there was to this new world. While he hadn't exactly expected to live after sealing the door behind him, he at least hoped that wherever he was there were some vestiges of sentient races. "Best thing to do right now is to find my way out of here."

Without any means of finding a way out he chose to do something rather basic. Taking the broken watch off of his arm and removing the minute hand. With it in his palm he snatched a leaf from one of the trees before kneeling in front of the murky water. Placing the minute hand on the leaf he watched as it began to spin in circles non-stop. After watching this for a moment he took the minute hand back.

"Well that was a waste of time." He was surprised to find that there was such a large reservoir of iron, wherever it was he had landed. The powerful electromagnetic fields were throwing off the needle.

Without a clear understanding where north was he had to make a few assumption. The first was that he was in the far north. That was possible as he didn't know how close to the sun this planet was or its rotation. The second theory was that there was just a wide overabundance of iron in this planet's crust. Regardless of the reason however it left him in the dark, figuratively. With no idea where anything was his only option was to just start walking in a random direction.

Each step he took the Earth beneath his feet miraculously hardened. Harry of course was the reason for this. While he had no issue getting muddy he preferred not to if he didn't have to. Plus, it would act as a marker should he need to return in the way he came. After a moment a small path began to form wherever he went providing seemingly the only form of stable ground around.

After hours of walking Harry finally decided to take a look around. It was kind of embarrassing to him that he had not thought to just climb a tree for a better vantage point. After a brief moment his hands effortlessly pulled his bulk through the dry leaves so that his head stuck out of the tree lines like an upside down apple.

The forest from above looked a lot like it from below. The dark leaves looked almost like a rocky mud while the seemingly perpetual mist looked like cleaner water. It was to his joy that although the forest seemed to stretch on for many miles off in the distance his powerful vision could spot what appeared to be a castle built into the side of a small mountain. After eyeing it for a while he assumed there must be someone living there.

Jumping down from the tree and landing back on his path he began to think. While he would love to get out of the forest it could be just as dangerous to just walk up to the castle without any plans. Yet, his hope to not be alone outweighed any potential danger there might be. Being who he was there wasn't any chance something so trivial could scare him. With that he readjusted his path to make a b-line for the castle.

As he was walking a noise floated through the tree. Had his hearing not been what it was there was no chance it would have caught his attention. As it was the scream seemed to be going off right next to him. Turning his head and identifying the sound as a human girl Harry's heart began to pump with excitement. Without thinking he sprinted off towards the sound.

 **XXX**

The Village of Araknos was nothing but a hobbled together number of shanty homes held in check by a shoddily constructed rock wall. From the homes to the walls the whole thing seemed to be falling apart. Only hopes and dreams seemed to keep the thing from collapsing in on itself. To say that they had nothing would not be an understatement. Yet, it seemed, there were those out there who though they had too much.

A fledgling necromancer had come to their village demanding something the village leader refused to give. In retribution he summoned what meager power he could to raise no more than a couple hundred undead zombies to his command. While few in number the villagers knew more than enough about the undead to understand that they did not stay dead for long. Because of that they hid behind their shaky walls preparing to hold out.

Their people were weak. Hunger was very common amongst their number. Because of this there was only so much of a resistance they could put up. As the undead creatures began to try pulling the wall apart the people on top dropped down heavy stones. Yet even when their bodies were broken it seemed another took its place.

Things had been looking bad for a while. The women and children were huddling together in their homes wondering if this was going to be their last moments of life. The men, holding sticks and rocks to defend their home, prepared to sell their lives for just a few more moments of life.

As the zombies began to break through a light illuminated the depressing darkness. A fireball came from the tree line burning the zombies in a flash. The explosion damaged a part of the wall as well. Everyone turned to the source of the fireball. Even the undead seemed to focus in on the spot. None of them were expecting a young man wearing odd clothes to step out of the tree line seemingly unarmed.

The Necromancer took offense to this. His tattered robes that hung from his body flapped as he turned around to face this newest of enemies. At first, he considered running. Fire was a powerful weapon against the undead. That was until he saw how young he appeared. After a moment of thought he figured the teenager too inexperienced in his art to defeat him.

Harry listened as the man spoke a strange language. It seemed to be a combination of languages taken from his own homeland with a heavy German influence. It didn't take long for his mind to decipher the language. Once it was done he caught the tail end of the string of threats the Necromancer was sending his way.

"Look, I am new around here." He looked around the obviously haunted lands. "But even I am willing to bet raising the dead and killing people is not legal. If I were you, then I would release my magic and surrender myself. Otherwise I am going to have to take your life."

The Necromancer laughed at him. Harry just stared at the ragged man in boredom. He even sat by doing nothing as he chanted in a strange language. As he summoned his magic corpses started to crawl out of the marshes and dirt all around them. By the end of it there were a good two hundred and fifty more corpses wandering towards him. it wasn't so much threatening as it was disturbing. Especially the little children that had been reanimated by the spell.

Harry shook his head. "Well, I did warn you."

He then lifted his left hand. He pointed it at the largest collection of the undead before snapping his fingers. In a moment an explosion like a cannon went off. The zombies furthest from the explosion were shredded to pieces and sent sailing across the clearing. Those closest were simply turned into ash. The necromancer for his part looked horrified as thirty of his zombies were taken out in an instant.

"Let's play a game." The necromancer looked at him oddly. "If you can raise zombies faster then I can destroy them, then you live, but if not your going to be on the receiving end of one of these rather quickly."

With that Harry snapped his fingers again. More explosions went off reducing the zombie hoard once more. He demonstrated that he could use this ability in rapid succession as he snapped his fingers three times back to back. Now the necromancer was down over a hundred zombies and the rest were dropping like flies.

Terrified, the Necromancer began to chant his spell once more. The explosions going off all around him made things much more difficult this time around. When he was successful he opened his eyes hoping to add these fresh zombies to his others in an effort to overwhelm his enemy's fire magic. To his horror the young man was standing all alone a fair distance away. Between them were craters with steam coming out of them due to the melted earth at the bottom.

"Is that all you could summon?"

The necromancer was confused and turned around. His eyes went wide as he counted only twenty zombies standing next to him. It only occurred to him then that the stress of the battle had thrown off his concentration. This must have been the limit of his ability. Immediately he began to look around for some advantage. His heart rate began to rise when he realized that reusing the destroyed corpses were impossible. Either they were too damaged, or burnt to ash. Dawning realization began to rise within him.

"I guess you lose." Harry lifted his hand up once more.

"Wait! Please-" That was as far as the man got before his entire world was reduced to fire. In the next few moments his life was ended. The few zombies not caught up in the blast soon fell over motionless without the sufficient magic to continue animating them.

"Humph, I expected better." He turned his gaze from the devastation he wrought upon his enemy and looked up towards the stone work wall that several humans were looking down on him from. "What is going on with these people?

 **XXX**

The people eventually opened the gate to let him in. Harry figured that they probably realized it would be pointless to try and keep someone who could apparently create fiery explosions on command with such a slapped together stone wall. What he had not expected was just how decayed the village was. There was no stone street, the houses looked about ready to fall upon themselves, and the smell made him want to gag. It was very clear that they had no system of waste management.

In front of him gathered the most pathetic group of people he had ever seen in his life. Skin and bone would be the best way to describe them. They were so gaunt that some of the zombies looked healthier than them. Their faces were sunken in giving them gaunt appearances. Their skin was pale and dirty while their hair had clumps of something in it that he just didn't want to contemplate.

After standing there for a moment, Harry waved at them. "Hello?"

The group began murmuring amongst themselves. Eventually one of their number stepped forward. She was a haggard old woman wearing stained grey robes. As she got closer and looked up at him he realized that she had a milky eye.

"We thank you for saving us, great warrior." She bowed so low that her nose nearly hit the ground. "Please take whatever you desire as a reward." She gestured to the people behind her and their homes. "We do not have much, but what we do is yours."

Never in Harry's life had he felt so put out. Looking out towards the people to see if they felt the same way, he saw that they did. Even the women seemed to be showing a bit more skin than before. Perhaps they thought he would take them as his own. While that wasn't going to happen, he had to suspect that it would be the best thing that would ever happen to them. Even the men seemed to just accept what was going on. Their blank stares and lack luster appearance spoke volumes.

Looking down at the old woman, he shook his head. "Thanks, but it seems like your people need everything they can get." She went to say something, but he cut her off. "Tell me, where the hell am I?"

The old woman paused, possibly trying to figure out how he couldn't know where he was, but then moved past it. "You are in Sylvania, stranger. This is the town of Araknos."

None of that meant anything to Harry. It seemed that he was correct in assuming that wherever that portal took him, it was not his own world. He knew that he couldn't go back, but hoped that there was more to this one than what was apparent.

After a moment of thought, Harry shrugged his shoulder. "So… are you the leader of this village?"

She shook her head in denial. "You just killed out leader."

Harry's eyebrow rose slightly. He looked back towards the entrance. "You mean that weird guy out there raising the dead? If he is your leader, then why was he attacking you guys?"

"Yes, Mezilgard used to lead our village." She sighed heavily. "Unfortunately, his family was taken by a wasting sickness some time ago. The loss of his family sent him down into a dark pit of depression and hatred. One day he just up and left the village without telling anyone. No one heard from him until today."

"Huh? I wonder who taught him."

An audible screeching sound came from the sky. Harry turned his head and saw a flock of bats flying overhead. To his surprise they were quite large. Some of them were even the size of small dogs. Their red eyes did creep him out, but it was the reaction that the people had that caught his eye. They were downright terrified. Their eyes moved back and forth as if looking for some unseen enemy. As the bats moved further away they began to relax slightly.

The old lady snapped his attention back to her. "Will you be staying?" Her milky eye focused on him.

"I don't have any money." Before he could say anything else the old woman was flagging down one of the girls standing in the crowd.

She had blond hair and blue eyes with pale white skin. Her dress was slightly better than those around her, but still it was all marred by dirt and disrepair. Still, she was a pretty little thing for a teenager. Still, she was a pretty little thing for a teenager. Perhaps in a different life she could have even rivaled Daphne Greengrass' beauty.

"This is my niece, Johanna." She looked to the girl. "Take him to Mezilgard's old home." Then she turned back to Harry. "His home and everything he had is now yours. It is not much, but it will keep the rain off your head."

"Thank you."

"Please kind sir, follow me." With that, Harry followed the girl down the road.

 **XXX**

Harry was beginning to wonder if the old woman's statement about keeping the rain off his head was true. While the home was larger than the rest, it was in just as rough shape. In fact, due to not being inhabited for at least a year it may be even worse off. The only thing of note about the place structurally was the front door. It was made of a very thick wood with metal bars to reinforce it. Whatever it was made to keep out must have been very strong.

Still, it was not too far off the mark of the old Weasley home. The only real difference was the atmosphere. Where the Weasley family kept their home bright, warm, and welcoming this place was dark, cold, and foreboding. No wonder the man went crazy. There was no comfort to be found in such a place.

Johanna showed him around the house. It was clear to him that she didn't have much experience with it either. She didn't seem to note how dirty the place was. With the way she explained everything it was as if it should be. He almost felt like it would offend them should he clean the place up.

Harry did note that as she was wrapping up the tour she seemed nervous about going back outside. A fear of the dark was not unheard of, but there seemed to be true fear within her about going out there.

"Would you like for me to walk you home?"

She looked at him as if she really wanted to say yes. "No, sir. I can manage." Her hand reached for the door, but she seemingly couldn't open it.

"If it would not worry your family, then you can stay here until sun up." She looked at him wide eyed. "I will sleep on the furs while you can take the bed."

"No sir, I could not." She bowed her head. "Please, allow me to take the furs. You have just saved us. As such you deserve a good night's rest."

Remembering that bed did not invite the idea of a good night's rest. In fact, his first idea would be to burn it to ash. The only reason he even considered sleeping on it was to not appear too strange to this admittedly odd people. That was unlikely to last. He had no plans to let things remain as they were. It was blindingly obvious that these people needed help. As such, he would do what needed to be done. It might scare them at first, but that was to be expected.

"I insist." He said it was some force behind his words. She seemed to get the message and bowed her head in acceptance. "Good." He stretched out slightly and grabbed some furs from around the house. After building up a pile he laid down and fell asleep.

Johanna watched him for a moment confused as to what she should be doing. Eventually, when Harry was already lying down, she gave up. she took the creaky stairs up to the second floor where the bed was. Apparently Mezilgard used the wood from the beds his children once slept in to build their coffins. As such there was only one bed in the house.

 **XXX**

When Johanna woke up the next morning, everything had changed. At first, she though herself still dreaming, yet none of her dreams could have every been this wonderful. The first thing she saw was the adjacent wall. While every home in Araknos was made from the gray colored wood taken from the Ghoul Woods, including the one she went to sleep in, now it was a warm honey gold. The way it seemed to brighten the room went beyond anything she had ever experienced.

As she started to get up it donned on her that even the bed had changed. Before it was a rickety old thing that squeaked with even the slightest of movement. Now it had a sturdy bedframe made from the same wood that the walls were. The blanket and mattress seemed brand new. Even the straw inside had an earthly smell that she could not recognize.

When her feet touched the cool floor, it was not dry and cracked, but instead smooth. Even the windows, which before had been dirty and cracked, were now flawless. Never had she even heard of a glass maker who could create such perfect works of art. In that moment the only thing not perfect was the town in which she had grown up in, that she could see through he window, had not been transformed as well.

She hastily put her shoes back on and dashed down the stairs that had received similar treatment as the rest of the house. When she made it to the bottom her heart skipped a beat. The stone floor which had been cracked was fixed. The stone work was completely different as if master masons from a land far away had snuck in the night to create a beautiful pattern of squares.

Only the sound of something popping and a delicious smell broke her daze. As she turned her head and saw the man who had saved their village previously with a frying pan in hand cooking breakfast did she realize what was going on.

"Magic."

Harry turned his head upon hearing Johanna coming down the stairs. He knew that this blatant use of his powers was risky. These people were less than open minded. Still, it was the only way he could see to better their lives. There just wasn't an angle he could play that would better their living conditions that didn't involve his powers. He considered not letting anyone know the full extent of his powers, but felt that only complicated things. However, he was smart enough to know not to go overboard in public.

"Good morning." Harry motioned for her to come sit at the rectangular table he had fixed. "I already bought some ingredients for breakfast. Unfortunately, there is no eggs. But I did get some ham and bacon."

He watched as the girl sat at the table like she was in a trance. He handed her a glass cup of water. She seemed fascinated with it. He considered making his cups out of some of the cast-off iron, but just didn't like the taste of it. He certainly wasn't going to be drinking the water as is. Anyone that foolish was asking to die. He thoroughly boiled it before giving some to the girl.

"So, tell me. How did you sleep?"

She didn't answer right away. At first, he wasn't sure if she had even heard him. She seemed so fascinated with everything. She raised the glass cup up to eye level and began looking through it. That lasted a few minutes before tentatively taking a few pieces of bacon and ham. As she took a bite her face contorted into one of absolute happiness.

"This is the best food I have ever tasted!" Then she took a sip of the water. "And this water is so good as well. It doesn't have that nasty after taste either." Her eyes considered his own. "How did you do this."

"The flavor?" He shrugged his shoulders. "It is just some seasonings I took from around town. Don't worry, I paid for it."

"Not just the food." She waved all around her. It made her look more than a bit frantic. "All of this."

"Oh, that." It was said as if it were an afterthought. "I am a very accomplished alchemist."

"Alchemist? What is that?" It was obvious she wanted to do what he could. He wasn't even sure she had the ability to do it. She certainly didn't have the education.

"An alchemist is a person who tries to understand the natural world and how magic effects it." The answer didn't seem to make sense to her.

"Wait, then how did you do all of this if all you do is understand how magic influence the physical world?"

Harry smiled. "Smart girl." That had her blush slightly. "While it is true that alchemists study the physical world and how magic effects it, we must be able to use magic so that we can study the results. As such, an alchemist often knows how to use magic to effect changes in matter and energy."

"So, you used alchemy to change the old wood into new wood?"

"Basically. It is a lot more complex than speaking some funny words and enacting a change. Alchemy uses as little magic as possible. By influencing a minor change with alchemy, a chain reaction occurs as a reaction. This reaction is often what the alchemist intended for in the first place."

"Could you teach me?" She seemed so excited.

"I am not sure." She deflated instantly. "I do not know if you can influence magic at all. For alchemy only, a slight talent for magic is required, but it is still needed. What you need just as much is an education. A complete understanding of chemistry, biology, and mathematics. Without this knowledge any amount of power you had would be pointless." Before she could ask any more questions, he cut her off. "Tell me, is there anything else I need to know before you go home?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, Mezilgard did own a section of farm land just like everyone else in town. Other than that, this is all he had." Though now it seemed a lot more than before.

"Where is this farm land?" Harry had more than a few ideas on how to use it.

She pointed out the window towards a second gate that he had not seen last night. "Take the dirt road towards the River Eisig. Mezilgard owned quite a bit of land along the riverbank. I believe there are some old posts marking the edge of his lands."

River front property would no doubt be an invaluable commodity in the times to come. Plans started to form in his head on ways to use the river. He wondered how large it was and if it was connected to any other village. Then his mind began to drift towards the current uses for the river. Was there a river trade going on? If so what did they trade? So many questions were popping up without any readily available answers. That would need to be remedied quickly.

"Alright. Finish up your breakfast and return home. I am sure your family is worried about you."

She nodded her head and finished her breakfast. After finishing off the last of her water she went to take the dishes to the sink, but he cut her off. She insisted on cleaning the dishes, but he just told her he was quite used to doing these kinds of things. As he escorted her towards the door she stopped and turned around.

"Yes?"

Her next question caught him off guard. "Do you have any need of a maid?"

"What?"

"Well." She began, but then paused. "Surely you are going to be busy in the future, right? You won't be able to keep you home nice and clean. Plus, cooking takes time. If you hired me, then all of your meals would be cooked and waiting for you."

"That would be nice, but I don't have any money." She was not dissuaded.

"Then you can use your powers to fix things. It is a fair deal, right?" Her big blue eyes looked so hopeful that he just couldn't turn her down.

"Very well." She immediately jumped for joy. "If your family does not mind you working here then consider yourself hired.

She hugged him around the neck before opening the front door to leave. He kept an eye on her as she went down the solid stone walkway to the edge of his property. When she was well out of sight for a normal human he closed the door, and went back inside. While he had not expected her to make such a request, it was not unwanted. She was corrected in her assumptions, but he wondered how much use she would be as a cook. Her culinary skills were probably very limited.

He popped his neck and sighed. There was still so much work to do.


End file.
